Issues and strategies of game design for language learning

Abstract : For the past decade, Game Based Learning (GBL) has been gaining attention in the field of technology enhanced learning in general and that of CALL in particular, as could testify a dedicated issue of ReCALL in (Cornillie, Thorne, and Desmet 2012). Yet some doubts have been raised by some publications. Some doubts are methodological (Girard, Ecalle, and Magnan 2013; Jong, Lee, and Shang 2013), but the more striking could be described as “ontological” (Lavigne 2013) underlined by the “chocolate-coated broccoli” metaphor (Bruckman 1999; Söbke, Bröker, and Kornadt 2013). The game design strategy we describe here stems directly from these doubts.